Government-connected businessmen and state officials engaged in the illegal export of timber from Armenia are mostly to blame for the former Soviet republic’s dwindling number of forests. Whereas 11 per cent of the republic was covered by forests in 1991, the figure stands at below 8 per cent today. Environmentalists warn that unless current trends are reversed, Armenia will be forestless by 2024. In recent weeks, such concerns have have been reinforced by plans to build a highway through the Shikahogh Nature Reserve situated in the southern-most
Tens of thousands of trees in the reserve will be felled
Siunik region of the republic. Tens of thousands of trees in the reserve will be felled in government plans to build a second, 90-kilometer road leading to the Iranian border. Shikahogh is habitat for over 1000 species of plants and fauna such as leopards. Environmental activists and NGOs in Armenia are up in arms against this latest threat especially as work on the $16 million project has already begun
Blockaded by Turkey and Azerbaijan as a result of the frozen conflict with the latter over the mainly Armenian-inhabited territory of Nagorno Karabagh, Armenia relies on its two other neighbors, Georgia and Iran for the bulk of its import and export. Approximately ten per cent of all imports into Armenia come from the Islamic Republic via mountainous terrain that often makes the journey dangerous during the winter.
The government argues that it is for this reason that a new road should be constructed even though the proposed route will not only pass through the Nature Reserve but also the centuries-old Mtnadzor forest.
Environmentalists say that the new road offers no advantage over that which already exists and accuse the government of having other motives for the project. Because the Shikahogh reserve and forest are currently protected under national law, they say that the new highway is simply a way to “legitimize” logging and hunting in the area.
According to the Armenia Now online publication, the value of the 14,000 mature and 90,000 younger trees that stand in the path of bulldozers is estimated at approximately $1 million.
“If they refuse to accept any of the proposed alternatives then the road is not the real issue,” said Karen Manvelyan, National Director of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Armenia in an interview with Hetq Online. “The plan for a ‘strategic' road is simply to get at the forest and the wood. Governmental officials say that the highway has strategic importance but none can explain why they have chosen this way through the reserve.”
If the road passes through the reserve, the government will violate several of Armenia’s international commitments as signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN Convention on Biodiversity, UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the European Convention on Landscape,” says Jeffrey Tufenkian, Executive Director of the Armenian Forests NGO.
“It also breaks various national laws and contradicts many decrees by the Armenian Government such as the State Strategy and National Action Plan for Development of Specially Protected Natural Areas,” he adds. “Construction will also infringe upon the Law on Environmental Impact Expertise as there was no environmental impact assessment conducted for the concept of passage of the road through the natural reserve.”
In fact, the Environmental Impact Assessment that the government had to undertake only occurred after construction started in May. In an interview with Radio Free Europe / Radio Europe at the beginning of June, however, the Armenian Transport and Communications Minister, Andranik Manukyan, added insult to injury by saying that the road would be constructed regardless of what the assessment concluded.
Amalia Kostanyan, Chairperson of the Armenian branch of Transparency International, the world’s leading anti-corruption watchdog, is not impressed.
“The plan was examined by the State Non-Commercial Organization on Environmental Expertise,” says Kostanyan, “The law says that the construction of any project can only start after the positive conclusion of an impact assessment. In the case of this road, however, no findings have been released – neither positive nor negative – and in fact, the assessment was returned by the government with the request that it be revised.”
Environmentalists are equally unimpressed and are particularly concerned by what they see as a cynical ploy to legalize construction on the reserve by
Moreover, the new road would also allow easy access to loggers and poachers
changing the status of Shikahogh from a Nature Reserve to that of a National Park. Such a dangerous precedent would immediately open it up to poachers and other commercial activities, they argue. Moreover, the new road would also allow easy access to loggers and poachers.
Meanwhile, public outcry has at least united NGOs in Armenia. Dozens of NGOs working within a coalition to save the nature reserve say that an alternate route should be taken and, already, extensive media coverage has forced the government to suspend construction for 15 days. However, while construction in the reserve has not yet started, bulldozers are still clearing the way for the access road.
As a result, environmentalists are convinced that the Armenian government has no intention to bow to public pressure to adhere to its own national law and international commitments.
“They seem to be proceeding in a way that indicates they have already made their decision regardless of what the public and NGOs have to say,” says Tufenkian. The American environmental activist of Armenian descent is also part of the coalition to save Shikahogh. A public hearing scheduled to be held in Yerevan on 17 June might well represent the last stand of environmentalists to prevent further deforestation in Armenia.
“The coalition of organizations working to save the Shikahogh Reserve has taken it upon itself to organize this public forum and has had to invite the relevant government ministries,” says Tufenkian. “Hopefully they will yield to public pressure and protect the reserve by choosing another route for the highway. However, it is possible that even if the government attends the public hearings, they will be doing so insincerely and simply as a matter of formality.”
Concern over the fate of Shikahogh and Mtnadzor has also spread far beyond the boundaries of the former Soviet republic. In the influential Armenian Diaspora, Carolyn Mugar, founder of the Armenian Tree Project and Executive Director of the US Farm Aid organization, has already started a letter writing campaign to lobby the Armenian Embassy in Washington.
Since then, the Minister for Transport and Communication, Andranik Manukian, has told the ArmInfo news agency that the government would now look at alternate routes and requested that environmentalists put in as much energy into securing extra finance for the project as they have in protesting. Paradoxically, he also declared that this “change of heart” had nothing to do with the campaign by environmentalists to save Shikahogh.
But given earlier broken promises that construction would be suspended, environmentalists are not taking the government at their word just yet. “There is not a single official decision and we do not know how the road will be constructed,” says Nazeli Vardanian, Director of the Armenian Forests NGO. “So, non-governmental organizations must continue the struggle.”